Baseball is a popular sport in the United States and people of all ages enjoy varying degrees of participation. Players and participants enjoy various elements of baseball, including throwing, pitching, hitting, and fielding. For hitting, one should typically have the hand-eye coordination required to strike a moving ball. Participants, of course thus practice to develop these skills. Because of the nature of the sport, batting practice machines, which can eliminate the need for a human pitcher, have been developed to simulate the pitching of ball. These devices however have a disadvantage in that they require an adequate supply of balls which also must be retrieved after hitting. Other tools include tethered baseball devices where the baseball for hitting is attached to a cord allowing ready retrieval of the hit baseball. These tethered baseball devices are useful for practice, especially where space for gameplay is limited. The type of ball used in these tethered ball devices may vary. A number of balls and practice systems, including the tethered ball devices, have been developed to facilitate skill improvement. Among these conventional balls and systems however, there remains a need for an apparatus that allows users to assess and then improve their baseball hitting skills.